Dark Blue And Moonlight (Taiwanese Series)

I somehow chanced upon this series and had no idea that it came back in 2017. It is an interesting love story with a difference. Sometimes you can't explain or justify who and why you fall in or fall out of love with. These things are complex and however hard you try, you loose when it comes to matter of heart. Revolving around 3 key players with another fourth, these characters are not straight forward and I liked it because at some level I was able to relate to all of them in one way or the other.

Hai Qing is a student who dreams of studying art. At a local swimming club, he almost saves life of Yan Fei and because of instant attraction, the duo engage in a passionate kiss. Yan Fei gives him his number to contact which he loses. Turns out Yan Fei is a CEO of a big company and already has a boyfriend of any years but they are going through their difficulties. Not long after, Hai Qing meets Ping Jun, who poses as a model for art students and the two start dating, which goes on for almost a year. But destiny has other plans. Ping Jun's sister ends up working for the CEO and at a birthday dinner Hai Qing and Yan Fei meet again. They soon start having an affair, unknown to both their boyfriends. Yan Fei's boyfriend in th meanwhile is also struggling with the fact that Yan Fei is not out to his mother an dh cannot take it anymore and decides to break up with him unknown to the affair. But interestingly Ping Jun sons finds out about affair, but he is way too much in love with Hai Qing and keeps ignoring it, but there is a crack in the relationship. Hai Qing is confused on what to do, since here is this inexplicable passion with the CEO but he also loves Ping Jun who has been there in his toughest times for over a year and has loved him unconditionally. So Hai Qing also feels that he can't break up with him. The weird triangle goes for a while till Ping Jun decides that he can't go on like this and decides to break up, so that those two can be together. But in a twist of things, Hai Qing then decides to move to US for further studies with the hope that he and the CEO guy can be together at some point.

The story, although may seem messy , but is actually quite interesting. Especially when you are growing up, you tend to constantly fall in and out of love and sometimes without any explanation. We all are different. You can sense when Hai Qing meets the CEO at the swimming pool, they just passionately kiss one another even without a hint of either knowing that other one is gay. But then once that subsides, Hai Qing goes in a happy place with Ping Jun (who by the ay is the epitome of a perfect boyfriend). He is handsome and gorgeous, very caring and loving, always keeps his love first and will do anything for him. So yes, I do feel bad for how things end up for him for no fault of his. But guess what, this is life and sometimes you are thrown shit at despite you having done nothing wrong. My heart reached out to him. In contrast, Hai Qing, is just really young and naive and all of 19/20 years old. You can't expect him to have figured out everything in life, least of all love. He is vulnerable ( there is an interesting family story here), can get convinced easily by anyone and in general gullible. This series is character driven, which makes it interesting because there is never a judgement on their actions. The characters come from different walks of life, with vastly different personalities, goals, agendas and complicated psyches. It captures the nitty-gritties of relationships and love. The undercurrents in relationships that no one wants to talk about, the kind of stuff everybody wants to pretend doesn't exist  and it captures every feeling beautifully.

All the actors IMO did a great job and are easy on eyes. With 12 episodes each of about 25-30 minute, it does take time to finish the show but I thought overall it was rewarding and a very different take on young gay relationship. Sure, there are other tiny Sid stories like that of Hai Qing's family or CEO's ex-boyfriend, who by the way also doesn't deserved to be treated the way he is. But all of them were interesting. Overall I was quite pleasantly surprised by how reasonable and logical the plot was without any cringeworthy or over the top scenes. (7/10)